Abstract: The correct description of Double Parton Scattering (DPS), which represents a background in several channels for the search of new Physics at the LHC, requires the knowledge of double parton distribution functions (dPDFs). These quantities represent also a novel tool for the study of the three-dimensional nucleon structure, complementary to the possibilities offered by electromagnetic probes. In this paper we analyze dPDFs using Poincare covariant predictions obtained by using a Light-Front constituent quark model proposed in a recent paper, and QCD evolution. We study to what extent factorized expressions for dPDFs, which neglect, at least in part, two-parton correlations, can be used. We show that they fail in reproducing the calculated dPDFs, in particular in the valence region. Actually measurable processes at existing facilities occur at low longitudinal momenta of the interacting partons; to have contact with these processes we have analyzed correlations between pairs of partons of different kind, finding that, in some cases, they are strongly suppressed at low longitudinal momenta, while for other distributions they can be sizeable. For example, the effect of gluon-gluon correlations can be as large as 20 %. We have shown that these behaviors can be understood in terms of a delicate interference of non-perturbative correlations, generated by the dynamics of the model, and perturbative ones, generated by the model independent evolution procedure. Our analysis shows that at LHC kinematics two-parton correlations can be relevant in DPS, and therefore we address the possibility to study them experimentally.

Abstract: Better understanding the mechanisms of nanoparticle permeation through membranes and packaging polymers has important implications for the evaluation of drug transdermal uptake, in food safety and the environmental implications of nanotechnology. In this study, permeation of 21 nm diameter silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) was tested using Side-Bi-Side and Franz static diffusion cells through hydrophilic 0.1 and 0.05 lm pore diameter 125 μm thick synthetic cellulose membranes, and 16 and 120 μm thick low-density polyethylene (LDPE) films. Experiments performed with LDPE films discarded permeation of AgNPs or Ag ions over the investigated time-frame in both diffusion systems. But controlled release of AgNPs has been quantified using semipermeable hydrophilic membranes. The permeation followed a quasi-linear time-dependent model during the experimental time-frame, which represents surface reaction-limited permeation. Diffusive flux, diffusion coefficients, and membrane permeability were determined as a function of pore size and diffusion model. Concentration gradient and pore size were key to understand mass transfer phenomena in the diffusion systems.

Abstract: Starting from a molecular picture for the X(3872) resonance, this state and its J(PC) = 2(++) heavy-quark spin symmetry partner [X-2(4012)] are analyzed within a model which incorporates possible mixings with 2P charmonium (c (c) over bar) states. Since it is reasonable to expect the bare chi(c1)(2P) to be located above the D (D) over bar* threshold, but relatively close to it, the presence of the charmonium state provides an effective attraction that will contribute to binding the X(3872), but it will not appear in the 2(++) sector. Indeed in the latter sector, the chi(c2)(2P) should provide an effective small repulsion, because it is placed well below the D*(D) over bar* threshold. We show how the 1(++) and 2(++) bare charmonium poles are modified due to the D-(*)(D) over bar ((*)) loop effects, and the first one is moved to the complex plane. The meson loops produce, besides some shifts in the masses of the charmonia, a finite width for the 1(++) dressed charmonium state. On the other hand, X(3872) and X-2(4012) start developing some charmonium content, which is estimated by means of the compositeness Weinberg sum rule. It turns out that in the heavy-quark limit, there is only one coupling between the 2P charmonia and the D-(*)(D) over bar ((*)) pairs. We also show that, for reasonable values of this coupling, leading to X(3872) molecular probabilities of around 70-90%, the X2 resonance destabilizes and disappears from the spectrum, becoming either a virtual state or one being located deep into the complex plane, with decreasing influence in the D*(D) over bar* scattering line. Moreover, we also discuss how around 10-30% charmonium probability in the X(3872) might explain the ratio of radiative decays of this resonance into psi(2S) gamma and J/psi gamma Finally, we qualitatively discuss within this scheme, the hidden bottom flavor sector, paying a special attention to the implications for the X-b and Xb(2) states, heavy-quark spin-flavor partners of the X(3872).